Pete Hoekstra Quotes

We don't want the Taliban to put down roots, or the al Qaeda to put down roots in Afghanistan that can facilitate Afghanistan becoming - once again - a launching pad for international terrorism.

Now we are showing to the world that this fighting against two terrorist groups was feasible and now we have an isolated case which doesn't mean that terrorism is alive, as it was before.

If it is terrorism, if it is war on terror, then the Afghan people will join you on terror.

We have entered a new phase in Islamist terror. Fifteen years after 9/11, our enemies have regained their momentum.

Pakistan and its associates find it difficult to understand that there are no 'good terrorists and bad terrorists.'

Terrorists are everywhere and, emphatically, not only in Iraq.

And the fact of the matter is there were thousands of people that went through those training camps in Afghanistan. We know they are seeking deadlier weapons - chemical, biological and nuclear weapons if they can get it.

We cannot allow Afghanistan to become again a haven for terrorists who inspire, plan and provide support for attacks like those of 11 September 2001, of 7 July 2005 in London, and more.

Nevertheless, I do know that we are part of a danger zone, we have military operations in Afghanistan and we're training the Iraqi police force. The terrorists also have us in their sights.

I mean, the Taliban, my view is that they have been weakened.

Osama bin Laden, the person, more likely serves the function of a stand-in. Compare the new terrorists with partisans or conventional terrorists in Israel. These people often fight in a decentralized manner in small, autonomous units, too.

The Taliban, broadly speaking, are Afghans - farmers, subsistence farmers. As I say, most of those people can't find the United States on the map. Al Qaeda, traditionally, are much more educated, middle-class people, often from Egypt, from Saudi Arabia, North Africa.

Al Qaeda is on the run, partly because the United States is in Afghanistan, pushing on al Qaeda, and working internationally to cut off the flow of funds to al Qaeda. They are having a difficult time. They failed in this endeavor.

Terrorism has no nationality or religion.

We need to defeat al Queda and other terrorist organizations.

More terrorists and extremists have been captured or killed in Pakistan than in any place in the world.

Now, al Qaeda's on the run. Afghanistan is no longer a base of operations. The Afghan government is a friendly government that is trying to bring democracy to its people.

I support Al-Qaeda when it kills Americans.

There are too many countries which have used terrorism as a tactic.

The War on Terror is a religious war … We are dealing with a set of ideas that kill.

We are at war with Al Qaeda and its affiliates.

Al Qaeda’s presence in Pakistan and Yemen … is facilitated less by the states’ weakness than by the ruling regime’s unwillingness to combat Islamic extremism—and indeed, their decision to embrace jihadi groups.

You couldn’t truly fight terror while working with Pakistan, the greatest shelter for terrorists.

The difference between Al Qaeda and ISIS is that instead of beheading their kidnapped victims, they shoot them in the head.

We must not be afraid to define our enemy. It is Islamic extremist terrorism. I did not say all of Islam. I said Islamic extremist terrorism. Failing to identify them properly maligns decent Muslims around the world. It also sets up a fear of being politically incorrect that can have serious consequences. And it has.